The four-day strike at the Neves-Corvo mine in the Beja district ended on Saturday with participation “below 1%,” the concession company confirmed today.
An official from Boliden Somincor, the concessionaire of the mine located in Castro Verde municipality, informed Lusa that overall, participation in the strike held on June 16, 17, 20, and 21 was “below 1% of the total workforce,” specifically “0.87%”.
Attempts to obtain a response from the Mine Workers Union (STIM), which called the strike, were unsuccessful at the time of reporting.
On June 17, after the first two days of the strike, union coordinator Albino Pereira acknowledged that participation rates were “very low.”
“Workers are very apprehensive about this new administration, unaware of what lies ahead and fearful of striking,” he stated at the time.
Despite the low participation, the STIM representative maintained that the strike at Neves-Corvo was “justified.”
The strike at the Neves-Corvo mine was initiated after the implementation, on June 16, of a new shift rotation model, consisting of four days of work followed by four days off (4×4).
According to an STIM statement, this decision violated “the company agreement in place” since 2019, considering it “incomprehensible that the company disregards the majority of workers, showing total disrespect and arrogance.”
The union further accused the Neves-Corvo concessionaire of intending “to extract more ore at the expense of workers’ health, depriving them of a dignified family and social life.”
In statements to the regional newspaper Correio Alentejo, published on June 6 and consulted by Lusa, Boliden Somincor’s general manager, Gunnar Nyström, stated that the company consulted workers “as legally required” about the shift rotation change, which “is covered by the current company agreement” and “was duly negotiated” with the union.
The manager added that “the change to a 4×4 shift rotation is essential to improve Somincor’s safety indices and increase the company’s production levels, reversing the negative trend of recent years.”
The Neves-Corvo mine mainly produces copper and zinc concentrates, as well as silver and lead.
It is the largest zinc mine in Europe and the sixth largest copper mine on the continent, and the largest employer in the region, with approximately 2,000 workers.
The Alentejo mine is operated by Somincor, which Lundin Mining sold to Swedish company Boliden, along with the Zinkgruvan mine in Sweden, for approximately 1.44 billion euros, in a deal completed on April 16.
